Why Should Your Community Invest in Resilience?
Fall 2022 Resiliency Academy Session 1 - Economic Activities: Investing In Resilience
What does it mean to invest in resilience, how does a community do that, and why is it important? On September 29th, Resilient Virginia is launching our Fall 2022 Resiliency Academy with a discussion on Investing in Resilience, touching on these questions and more. We are pleased to announce that 3 national level speakers will be joining us to help guide our communities in building a case for investing in resilience.
Valentina Gomez
Vice President/Senior Analyst, US Public Finance Group, Moody’s
Valentina Gomez is a Vice President/Senior Analyst for the New York Local Governments Ratings Team. She is the state lead for Florida and Virginia and covers credits in North Carolina. Prior to joining Moody’s, Valentina was a Senior Budget Analyst in New York City’s Office of Management & Budget and an Analyst at Morgan Stanley. Valentina holds an MPA from New York University and a BA in Economics from Tufts University.
Valentina will give a brief explanation of Moody’s inclusion of climate mitigation considerations as part of their local government rating criteria.
Michael Dexter
Director, Southeast Sustainable Recovery Center, SDSN
Michael is the Director of the Southeast Sustainable Recovery Center (SSRC). The SSRC is a pilot program of the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network to help local governments and the communities they represent in the Southeast have the opportunity and support to access and be awarded funding to advance sustainability and resilience efforts. He provides technical assistance to members to access and apply for federal funding, liaises with federal agencies, and connects local governments with key partners who provide additional support under the Center’s umbrella. Prior to being with SSDN, he worked within local, state, and federal government including at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to oversee a $1.2 billion annual grant program, coordinate agency-wide climate change adaptation efforts, and support disaster preparedness and emergency response efforts.
Michael will present on “making the case for federal funding” to provide insight on how to position your community to benefit from the recent historic level of federal investment and effectively compete for federal awards. He will cover how recent legislation, federal actions, and administration policy provide an incentive for local governments to advance climate resilience, environmental justice, and sustainability priorities.
Andrew Eil
Head of Climate Risk, North America, Tata Consultancy Services
Andrew Eil is currently Head of Climate Risk for North America with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he provides climate-related financial risk advisory services for banks, insurers, and other financial institutions. From 2018 to 2021, Andrew was a Partner at Climate Finance Advisors (CFA), a boutique advisory firm operating at the intersection of climate change policy and financial markets. With CFA and as an independent consultant from 2014 to 2018 specializing in climate change and clean energy policy, international development, and sustainable investing, Andrew served clients including the World Bank, the Green Climate Fund, UN Development Program, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), U.N. Environment, Climate-KIC, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and Bloomberg LLP.
Andrew has a masters in public affairs from Princeton (2009) and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard (2002). He is a holder of the GARP SCR (Global Association of Risk Professionals Sustainability & Climate Risk) certificate (2022), a level II candidate of the CFA (Certified Financial Analyst) (2014) and SASB Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) (2017), and holder of the Columbia University certificate in sustainable finance (2020).
Andrew will present a brief conceptual overview of blended finance (use of catalytic capital from public or philanthropic sources to increase private sector investment in resilience projects) and examples of blended finance in the climate change resilience context in the U.S.
The Fall 2022 Resiliency Academy is a series of 4 webinars from September 29th – December 15th. Please check out or Resiliency Academy page to learn more about the series and to register!
